Stay at home and avoid:
- substandard overpriced fixed menu meals
- overpriced sparkling wine masquerading as champagne.
- overcrowded restaurants
- wandering minstrels
- gypseys selling roses
- hype
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Three years ago I went on a boozy winery tour with a busload of artist mates. Somehow along the way I managed not only to buy two small olive trees, but also two magnificent French oak wine barrels to plant…
There’s a rumour that Melbourne hospitals lay on extra staff in the Emergency Department at this time of year. Yes, it's tomato season and given our vast migrant population, there will invariably be a few home-bottling and canning disasters. Every Italian…
Making yoghurt at home is really simple and doesn't take much science. Here we make two different styles of yoghurt using both cows' and goats' milk.
It took four hours of a Saturday afternoon to construct this gigantic pie.
The recipes available are all pretty similar, three different types of pork with herbs and spices surrounded by jelly and encased in a hot water pastry. This one…
There's a lot of meat and fat in a pork pie including the hot crust pastry which is made with lard and butter.
I bought a whole tub of dripping, which is basically like lard (pig fat) but from beef, as…
Five days later and the bacon is cured. Salty and sweet, with a hint of juniper and sage, it was worth it.
Nothing is ever easy for me. Frustrated by the poor quality of filling and pastry in local pork…
Recent journalismWe don't see much innovation in cookbooks nowadays but The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria is as you'd expect from one of the world's most innovative chefs.
What most…
Consult a financial adviser before drinking from a Riedel.
Dishwasher tablets erode your glasses and crockery. Use liquid instead.
Decant heavier reds at least 8 hours before drinking.
If you want to drink…
Three years ago I went on a boozy winery tour with a busload of artist mates. Somehow along the way I managed not only to buy two small olive trees,…
There’s a rumour that Melbourne hospitals lay on extra staff in the Emergency Department at this time of year. Yes, it's tomato season and given our vast migrant population, there…
Making yoghurt at home is really simple and doesn't take much science. Here we make two different styles of yoghurt using both cows' and goats' milk.
One of the most exciting chefs to be in town for the Sydney International Food Festival was the witty and erudite David Thompson. If you aren't familiar with Thompson, the…
I recently had a non-brush with death while eating what turned out not to be my last meal.
It made me think of all the meals I'd wasted. A bad…
Neil Perry (left), Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal (bald). Courtesy of the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival.
On the SBS Food site you can see my story on meeting Thomas Keller…
Typical. Just as the world peaked Paul Levi, the man who had no small part in bringing us the slightly dubious word “Foodie”, launches the Gastrosexual, a man with more…
With thanks to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
It's 3.50 on a Friday afternoon. I've just finished a great meal cooked by Scott Pickett at The Point in Albert Park…
Copyright Edward Charles and Tomato Media Pty Ltd 2005-2011
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
yep!
AND… it’s far romantic at home anyhow!
far more romantic.
Duh!
Happy 42nd Anniversary of the introduction of decimal currency. Ed!!
Quite.
Grocer, it will be with parma ham, figs some BBQued sardines and an Eton Mess but alas no wine ;-(
PG, you do. i didn’t dare leave you a coment but I think my rusty carbon steel kitchen knife (somebody left it in the washing up) may be far more scarey than your surgical instruments. I have no surgical training but am a keen amateur vet.
Thankyou, your whoreness.
Bunch of flowers, bottle of bubbles and fish and chips at home out of the paper. Call me romantic! I call it practical.:
Well said though I have to admit Michael & I decided a stroll down Sydney rd with Chloe in the pram & a lovely dinner in the beer garden at the retreat where she could run around happily with no champagne, roses or Valentines menus in sight made for a great & night out for us
Steve, nice one all though I cocked-up my meal forgetting that Jackie doesn’t like boney sardines. Boy, a glass of wine would have been nice with the ham and figs. 14 days to go!
Ange, sounds great. It’s where it comes form rather than having to have hearts on it that counts.
Never underestimate the subtle power of a six pack & the drive-through.
I dont agree- had a fantastic dinner at Attica, very romantic and pol roger champagne.
Perhaps you just need to choose the right place!
Gobbler, classy. But why a six pack? Surely a slab if you’ve made the effort to drive there.
Fiona, of course Attica is different. I’d none of the above would have been ticked which makes us in agreement in this isolated case.
I think that Valentine’s Day took off because so many men in the west are undemonstrative and forget that they need to remind their partner on a regular basis that they appreciate what women bring to their lives.
Psychologically it’s clever. It only takes one day a year to satisfy most women, where the lady of your life can be relieved of the domestic humdrum and receive some affection in order to be made to feel special and loved. With dogs and cats you need to remind them on a daily basis or they run away.
We went to see Lust Caution – artful, a little raunchy and suspenseful – and wandered hand in hand through Melbourne’s laneways until we settled on supper at Punch Lane. Perfect.
For us, Singapore chilli crab prepared at home. Decadent, hands-on, deliciously messy and more than a touch primal…with not a candelabrum or silver-plated utensil in sight. A huge live mud crab took the place of a doz stemmed roses…same cost but incomparable value!
Towser, nice one. Now I’m jelous although on the eve we had a BBQed Cray so I shouldn’t complain really.